The Department of Public Safety is joining forces with the office of Texas Secretary of State John Steen to bring Texans 25 mobile stations which will provide election identification certificates, or EIC’s.

The announcement was made by Steen and staff Tuesday, Sept. 24, at what will be one of the very first registration spots — Holman Street Baptist Church in the Third Ward of Houston. These EIC mobile stations begin trips across the state on Tuesday, Oct. 1. Locations and hours of operations are posted on gotexas.gov. As already established by law, these EIC’s are free of charge.

Steen sees the program as an outreach initiative to reach communities that would otherwise not vote. However, his office hasn’t yet set a goal for the number of voters they hope to reach.

“It’s one more way we’re working to help voters make their mark on Texas,” Steen said. “We want to reach everbody.”

This new agenda comes in the wake of a controversial voter ID law that Texas passed by legislators in 2011. The law requires that all voters show a photo ID before casting a ballot. While the law was passed in 2011, it didn’t become valid until after Shelby County v. Holder in which a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed such state legislation.

If a citizen has no photo ID, that person will have six provisional days before they must show a photo ID so that votes will be counted.

“Nobody will be turned away at the polls,” Steen said.

Besides mobile units, Harris County has brought three more early voting stations for the upcoming election to assist in franchising voters. Those three will bring the total to 40, according to Stan Stanart, Harris County Clerk.

“We’re here to implement the law as it is, but we want to make sure that everybody has that opportunity to vote,” Stanart said.

Manson Johnson of Holman Street Baptist Church believes the mobile stations will be vital to his congregation and the surrounding community.

“Voting is the most precious privilege that we have in America,” Johnson said. “Today … no one will be left out.”

For those interested in using the new service, application requirements are the same as they would be at a DPS office. Applicants must be Texas residents, and 17 years and 10 months or older. They must also bring documentation to verify U.S. citizenship, identity verification, and they’ll need to either bring a valid voter registration card or submit an application. Public Safety Commission Chairman Cynthia Leon encourages parties to have this documentation ready beforehand.

Voters can still use one of the other six forms of identification as the required documentation. These include: a Texas driver license, a Texas personal identification card, a Texas concealed handgun license, a US passport, US Military identification, or a US Citizenship Certificate.